This year, more people than ever before have found themselves working or learning from home via distance learning and remote work systems. The shift in mindset has been a long time coming and many schools and universities were already, to some degree, offering these distance learning courses. In something akin to a baptism of fire, however, many student bodies across the world were suddenly shifted entirely to this remote learning and distance learning model. There are many lessons to be taken from this time and very valuable ways that distance learning in general is changing education, fuelled by the need for innovation in the space. Here are five of the biggest ways distance learning is changing education today.
Students Can Work on Their Own Schedule
A student who is working to pay their way through university and needs the flexibility to study or attend classes in the evening is no longer limited in the choice of programs they can take based on the availability of after-hours classes. Thanks to technologies like lecture recording and massively open online courses, students can work to their own schedule, even if that schedule is highly erratic or irregular. Provided they can be disciplined enough to submit any work required in time for deadlines, when they complete the work is completely up to the student and their own schedules.
Schools Can Educate More Students
There’s something to be said about the fact that you can even qualify as an educator on a distance learning course. An MA education distance learning is in many ways the perfect example of how accessible online learning can be. Not only does the ability to learn online mean more students will be able to take advantage of it, but it also means that schools can take in bigger numbers of students. Without the limitations of physical space and lecture venues, there isn’t a hard limit to the number of students that can be accepted. Provided the school has the available administrative capacity to assess student submissions (or sufficient ability to automate the assessment of these submissions), many more students can be offered placement into undergraduate or even graduate programs.
Distance Learning Increases Independence and Time Management
Because students are required to be disciplined in learning and producing work, they will need to adopt very good time management skills and learn to work independently. This means that as a necessity, students will learn these critical time management skills, which are even more crucial once they enter the workforce.
It’s More Cost-Effective for Everyone
Because students aren’t on campus consuming resources that the school would ultimately have to pay for like water, electricity and other basic services, the cost of education is greatly reduced. Couple this with the scalable nature of online learning – the coursework can be consumed by more students and therefore the cost of hiring staff responsible for delivering and creating the content can be split amongst more students, the actual education cost is lower. This means that more students will be able to afford education.
The Quality Is Often Better
Because the content is designed for repeated consumption, perhaps even over multiple years, often the quality of delivered lessons and lectures is better. While most academic staff have a real passion of teaching and deliver high-quality lectures no matter how often they repeat them, it’s only human nature that a professor or lecturer recording a lesson that is going to be used for a number of years is naturally going to be more enthusiastic and create better quality content. The resources that are designed to accompany and augment these recorded lectures will be designed for distance learning and conducive for the format too.
Education is a basic human right and thanks to the advancements in distance learning and the adoption of technology to deliver online or distance learning courses, more than ever we can start to fully embrace what it offers. Schools that have had to limit the number of students attending or completing their studies can now exponentially grow the number of students they can accommodate, and they can deliver it cheaper than ever before. More students who were limited by mobility or travel can now participate in these programs and while doing so will learn valuable life skills in the areas of time management and the ability to work and complete tasks independently or collaboratively using technology. It’s actually quite difficult to find any downsides to the mass proliferation of distance learning we’re seeing around the globe today.